I’ve been following Reddit for a while and for gardening content it’s the most interesting of all my social accounts, with SO many real yards needing help and getting advice. Plus bog post ideas.

Today’s example? The answers to this question that was recently posted to the Landscaping subreddit and received 505 responses so far: “For people who have worked on their yard or outdoor space, what’s one landscaping decision you regret or wish you did differently? Could be plant choices, layout, drainage, patio placement, anything really.” Responders included DIYers and professionals, too.  I bet you can guess the most popular answer:

  • The most mentioned mistake was landscape fabric, also known as weed cloth. No other mistake came close! When someone commented that he was happy with the result after year two, he was told to “Wait until year 7”!  (The Gardens Professors and many other experts explain the problem.) 

Soon after installation, pea gravel is going everywhere.

  • Second most-mentioned mentioned: Rocks! Including lava rock. Pea gravel is called “demonic”! When used as mulch, rocks are “hot, of no benefit to the soil, and weeds grow right through them.” 
  • Other mulch-related mistakes include rubber mulch (natch!) and using “gorilla hair mulch” which gets called “nasty” because it “clings to dogs’ fur.” Never heard of such a thing!
  • Lots of people planted things in the wrong places.  E.g., when the future size of the plant isn’t taken into account. And lots of “Planted too close to the house,” with one landscaper saying he’d been hired to fix eight ‘Nellie Stevens’ hollies planted 6 inches from the house! “That was an oversized job to fix.”

This is a common mistake in my community because the use of privacy screens is so limited by our rules that people rely on plants to provide screening, creating big problems in such small spots.

 No comment!

Bamboo that’s escaped from yards into a natural area. Photo by Catherine Plaisant.

  • Plants that take over got lots of mentions, starting with bamboo (the winner!), mint, Rose of Sharon (termed “aggro”), vinca, pachysandra, Bradford pear, English ivy, black-eyed Susans, orange trumpet vine, sweet autumn clematis, sea oats, and “natives that get wild quick, spread more than I’d like and have more maintenance than say a regular old bush.”  I wonder if that commenter knows that “regular old bushes” are low-maintenance when pruned correctly.
  • On the contrary, a commenter wished they’d “stopped planting perennials and switched to trees and shrubs. Perennials die over time or take over the place.” Some valid points! (I’m in the tree+shrub camp for low-maintenance gardens.)
  • Some design mistakes, like “Planting in pairs instead of 3s.” And having no plan, so “my yard looks neurodivergent,” a “mishmash of impulse buys.”  I love “neurodivergent yard.”
  • Not planting sooner, especially the trees.  
  • Pruning mistakes, like “cutting back an unsightly hedge and realizing it was giving me privacy.”
  • Knock-out roses because one commenter’s “$500 worth of KOs” got rosette disease. In response, it was suggested they get OSO Easy roses instead.
  • Basic gardening mistakes: Not getting a soil test. Rototilling. “Using salt and vinegar on my soil.” A homeowner trying to remove a stump by themselves.
  • Flower seed mixes.
  • Sprinkler system – a “complete waste of $$$.”
  • Mail order plants “small and weak.”
  • Under-estimating work to “regrade.”
  • Making their patio too small.
  • Not removing poison ivy.
  • And there’s a tip for professionals in this complaint: “Allowing a landscape architect (a gift from my MIL) to ignore my desires and must-haves.”

What are YOUR biggest mistakes? 

A few of mine: 

My former home in 1985 when I bought it, then years later when the English ivy fully covered the fence, then finally with a new fence and ivy-free.

  • After buying this Sears bungalow in 1985, I mistakenly kept the chainlink fence and covered it with the English ivy growing at its base. (Creating what some call a “fedge,” combination fence/hedge.) The ivy was SUCH a pain to keep confined to the fence, I finally, after 20+ years, had the damn ivy and ugly fence removed.  The replacement fence, designed and installed by a friend, was praised by the Washington Post’s garden columnist when he came to interview me, which was nice. But he had nothing AT ALL to say about my garden. I tried to convince myself the problem was the season – late winter. 
  • In my current garden, not realizing much sooner that I needed some constructed screens for privacy, that plants alone wouldn’t do the job. (See oversized evergreens above.)
  • Plant-wise, my biggest mistake over the decades has been giving up on perennials after two or even one season, not realizing that many of them don’t look like much until year three.